MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Indigenous rights defender Hugo Aguilar is leading in the race to head Mexico’s highest court following the country’s first popular election to appoint judges and magistrates, according to electoral authority data on Tuesday.
With 87% of votes counted from Sunday’s election, Aguilar had some 4.94 million votes – 5.2% of the total. Lenia Batres, who is close to the ruling Morena party, was behind him at 4.69 million votes, or 4.9%.
President Claudia Sheinbaum celebrated Aguilar’s lead in the vote count, saying the court had not had an Indigenous leader since Benito Juarez, a Zapotec Oaxacan who led the court during the mid-19th century before becoming Mexico’s first Indigenous president.
“He is a very recognized lawyer, he has the credentials to join the court,” she told a press conference. “This is the goal: equal access to justice for all Mexicans. How would this have happened under the previous process?”
Aguilar, a Mixtec lawyer from the southern state of Oaxaca, is currently lead rights coordinator for the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI), having been appointed in 2018 by former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
He studied constitutional law and has worked in various government offices as a coordinator and advisor for Indigenous rights, as well as land and agrarian affairs.
Voting on Sunday, for some 2,600 judges and magistrates, attracted an estimated 13% turnout. Critics denounced the process as too complex and said the vote could undermine the independence of the country’s judicial system.
(Reporting by Sarah Morland and Raul CortesEditing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Frances Kerry)
